Naturalism in Stephen Crane's "Maggie: a Girl of the Streets"

Naturalism in Stephen Crane’s “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,” is a novella written by Stephen Crane and published in the year 1893. This work was published during the time of the Industrial Revolution, when factories were appearing everywhere. Their workers were often not paid enough to lead a decent life, and suffered from their situation. They were not very civilized and sometimes aggressive in their behavior. Perhaps because of this radical change from a more agricultural lifestyle to one of industry and factories, some pieces of literature were starting to transition from the classification of Realistic writings to works that are now categorized as works of Naturalism. While the two categories are related, Naturalistic works often are based in urban landscapes and focus upon the poor and less educated; whereas the character focus and settings of Realistic works were ordinary people living in both cities and small towns. Crane’s novella was written right as the literary movement of Realism ended and Naturalism began, and understandably includes elements of both movements. Crane’s story, though, can be concretely set in one category. His story occurs in urban New York. The plot of it is set on a community of its poor residents who cannot change their situation. The themes and tenets used in this work, as well as the aforementioned setting and plot choices, concretely set this novella in the classification of a work of Naturalism. Crane uses foreshadowing to allude to storylines that are created and events that occur later in the story. In the opening of the novella, we are greeted with a scene of a bloody and intense fight. Those involved are mere children, who are fighting intensely and drawing all the blood they can from their adversaries. The names of the neighborhoods from which the boys are from: “Rum Alley” and “Devil’s Row”, imply to the reader that the inhabitants are both heavily dependent on alcohol and rough in their personalities. The fact that young children are fighting battles like animals echoes the similar themes of Naturalists portraying the city as a jungle, and its’ inhabitants equal to the animals that occupy it.

Crane uses both similes and metaphors to add intensity and detail to his work. His work is peppered with colorful language that allows the reader to perceive an occurrence or characteristic with greater intensity. Crane implies that Maggie is a flower through stating that she “blossomed in a mud puddle” (ch. 5). When referring to the speed with which Maggie at her food, Crane states that she ate “like a small pursued tigress” (ch. 2). Later, Jimmie confronted Pete at the bar, and “snarled like a wild animal” when he threatened Pete into a fight (ch. 11). Soon before the fight, Jimmie, his companion, and Pete stood close together and “bristled like three roosters” (ch. 11).

From these similes and metaphors can be pulled Crane’s portrayal of the city. The use of animal comparisons to refer to the actions of people expose the animal-like and barbaric nature of those described. Crane and other Naturalists used this technique of describing the city as a jungle to present to their readers the reality of city life. The lifestyle and living conditions of the poor were animal-like. They fought one another in a struggle to survive. Whoever was larger was always considered superior over the small. When Pete approaches the brawling children and hits one on the head to stop him from fighting, the young boy “scrambled to his feet, and perceiving, evidently, the size of his assailant, ran quickly off, shouting alarms” (ch. 1).

Crane’s use of diction is also telling of the lifestyle of those living in the Bowery. The characters speech is consistently made up of curses and broken words. It shows that the inhabitants are either poorly educated or uneducated, and lack a civilized lifestyle. The male inhabitants, at least in this story, are constantly challenging another...

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Maggie’s mother, Mary, is a crude alcoholic who has no business raising children. Stephen Crane describes her terrifying nature during a fight with her husband: “The woman screamed and shook her fists before her husband’s eyes. The rough yellow of her face and neck flared suddenly crimson. She began to howl” (9). Crane describes the mother as crimson because he is depicting her as the devil. Maggie is raised in an unhealthy environment where her parents are constantly fighting. Her mother even kicks her out of the house because she is impure, and Maggie is forced to live on the streets. Maggie’s mother is not a responsible parent and because of this Maggie does not know how to act proper and how to take care of herself. She is a helpless child and she is doomed to a life on the streets.
Like many other families at the turn...

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Naturalism is evident not only in the content of StephenCrane’s “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,” but this naturalistic idea is also expressly stated by the author. Crane’s purpose in writing Maggie is “…to show that environment is a tremendous thing in this world, and often shapes lives regardless” (Westbrook 587). Maggie lives with a poor and abusing family and a hopeless future with only the small possibility of change. The environment and setting she grows up in support only a dreary and pathetic future for her. Maggie expresses a model of culture and identity that critics call environment. Howard Horwitz expresses in saying that “ this model conceives a person as natural growths of environment, who do not modify but instead reflect and reproduce environment because they are wholly, as some social scientists put it, ‘imitation’ of environment ”(Horwitz 608). This shows that people are a reflection of the environment they live in. Stephen Crane uses naturalism to show that Maggie is shaped by her environment. Maggie lived with an abusive family, grew up in the slums and is rejected by her family and love interest, Pete; she also becomes a prostitute and...

...Stephen Crane wrote many short stories, one of which was Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. His stories contained various aspects of Naturalism, a literary movement that sought to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Poverty, abuse and a survival of the fittest way of life created an environment which Maggie was negatively influenced by. Her environment is made up of many circumstances that affect her, one of which is poverty.
Maggie grew up in poverty, living out her childhood in a shabby apartment in Rum Alley. This poverty influenced her beliefs. The story says “when Pete arrived Maggie, in a worn black dress, was waiting…,” (18). In comparison, Pete was said to wear nice clothes such as “his blue double-breasted coat, edged with black braid, buttoned close to a res puff tie, and his patent-leather shoes,” (14). Maggie has her “worn dress” and as such she sees herself as lowly. The effect of the poverty is emphasized when Maggie, while observing Pete, ponders “She vaguely tried to calculate the altitude of the pinnacle from which he must have looked down upon her,” (16). This statement shows how, at this point in her life she sees other people above her. The poverty caused her to think this way-...

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One example that shows Maggie has little control over her life is her personal appearance. Maggie is a girl from an awful background with drunken parents and a small tenement she lives in. In general, one would expect someone from such an origin to be unattractive due to the fact she lacks the care it takes to become attractive. One occurrence of this is when Crane says, "The girlMaggie, blossomed in a mud puddle. She grew to be a most rare and wonderful production of a tenement district, a pretty girl" (13). This quote tells the reader that Maggie is a pretty girl, which is rare in her conditions. Maggie, being born in such a horrid environment, is unlucky to be born with such good looks. She...

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Stephen Crane opens this story with a young Jimmie Johnson fighting in the street against a gang of boys. Jimmie, who is Maggie’s brother, returns home to Maggie, their baby brother Tommie, and their ruthless alcoholic parents. The children’s home life is nothing short of horrendous. Their mother is a gruesome, animalistic woman who is despised by everyone, and their father is a brutal, negative, angry drunk. The parents scream and argue and the children are left shuddering in the corner out of fright and despair. Tommie and the father die soon after the introduction of the story, leaving Jimmie to grow just...

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The “naturalism” school of American literature, especially the area of late twentieth century writer Stephen Crane, certainly defines itself with a straightforward, journalistic descriptive style and an eye for the people of everyday, American environments. In terms of Crane’s novella Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, the naturalist’s work shines through despite the geographical and narrative differences of the story. Specifically, this paper will analyze the naturalistic layers of Crane’s narrative, which plays on reader assumptions from the journalistic composition to create a link between style and theme.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets surfaces to the reader’s consciousness early in the story mainly through the importance of the visual details of color, the appearance of its inhabitants, and the placement of physical objects. The representation of the streets of the tenement-housing district “Rum Alley,” works with shadowy and bitter textures to enter the reader into the visual world before solidifying a gruesome effect through supporting imagery. “The dark region” of the tenement alley where “A wind of early autumn raised yellow dust,” and where “Formidable women, with uncombed hair and disordered dress, gossiped...

...Many times the thoughts and works of great authors and writers are published before the general public is ready for the graphic images that these works create. Only after society has become more accepting of situations over time, can these works truly be appreciated instead of facing disapproval from society. Tragically, often times it takes many years and countless hours of revisions to tone down the work to fit within the moral mold that society creates for itself. Stephen Crane was one of those authors who wanted to use his works to show his readers and the general population the things that are often just swept under the rug. In Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, many controversial topics are addressed which led to problems with publication.
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Assignment: “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets”
In “Maggie, A Girl of the Streets,” Stephen Crane positions Maggie between two Moral systems –the old –fashioned Puritan Culture of her mother, and the new culture of abundance and consumption (consumerism). How does Maggie respond to both moral systems in the story? (Give examples of how Maggie demonstrates a connection with both cultures) Which Culture do you thing she most participate in?
Dieing Between Two Worlds
Besides the emotional pain that rejection causes, it is up to some level an unavoidable part of life. In our nature as human beings, we are constantly fulfilling our own necessity of been accepted. In “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” rejection and morality play fundamental aspects in Maggie’s life. Even thought she felt connected to the two sides of her life to a certain point, in both cases she was rejected. On one hand, during her early years, her “Old-Fashioned” world was controlled by her mother’s hypocritical double morality. On the other hand, her last days were moved by the two faces of her “New world” where she faced rejection for a second time, and failed in self-acceptance.
First, during her early years, Mary’s--Maggie’s mother-- hypocritical double morality was expressed through her alcoholism,...